As we outlined last year, 93 Cumberland Street is one of the four massive “Light House” condos that were created when the former Second Church of Christ at 651 Dolores Street, which overlooks Mission Dolores Park, was redeveloped in 2016.
Purchased for $6.1 million in February of 2017, which was $49K under asking and in-line with the other units in the building and neighborhood at the time, the three-level, 5,300-square-foot unit “in the center of it all” features a central great room with a 30-foot ceiling, exposed brick walls, polished cement floors, steel beams and original and repurposed woodwork throughout.
Returned to the market mispriced at $5.995 million in June of 2021, the asking price for 93 Cumberland was reduced to $5.395 million in April of last year and then to $4.95 million this past October. And the re-sale of 93 Cumberland has now closed escrow with a contract price of $3.95 million, which was “only a million under asking” but $2.15 million or 35.2 percent below its 2017-era value on an apples-to-apples basis, which isn’t a great comp for the other three units in the building nor other luxury properties in the neighborhood.
Needs more walls.
Also, laundry 2 floors down from the bedrooms isn’t well thought-out. And I don’t understand the concept of a 2–bedroom home with a “family room”. The high ceilings are nice but don’t compensate for the lack of windows/natural light. It’s interesting, but not that practical.
There are three bedrooms. The layout seems really odd in several ways.
I got to tour one of these units (not this one) when they were trying to sell it and briefly allowed anyone to show up for an open house. Their appeal is niche, to be sure. Tons of stairs, weird layout, not enough bedrooms for a family. Congratulations to the developer for unloading them, I guess?
Today’s object lesson in the fallout from wasted, misallocated capital during speculative asset bubbles, and the lunacy of prolonging them. But the developer made bank, so it’s all good, right?
Did the developer make bank? As I recall from previous posts on this site, the developer made a loan to one purchaser (for the unit that tried to hold yoga classes or similar) so if they also did the same to this one, they might be left holding some bag if it was a short sale. Anyway, it did seem like a mistake not to have tried to get this project approved to be live-work to allow such usage. The units are otherwise too bizarre for ordinary living. But not sure it could’ve been redeveloped into anything but residential, given the lack of money/demand for commercial spots in our increasingly online world. All those movie theaters, ex-churches, empty retail, office space, all waiting for any use. Does not bode well for preservation.
Yeah: if we assume that this being preserved – as opposed to either being ‘dozed or abandoned – was one ot he side effects of wasted, misallocated capital during speculative asset bubbles, then I would count it as a positve side efffect. Unless, of course the argument is that the only reason it ceased to be a Church is because it was more valuable being redeveloped; but I don’t believe that was the case.
Thank you for illustrating my point. Because of the speculative asset bubble, the only conceivable re-purposing of this building was luxury condos, right? “Well, what else would pencil out for the high prices necessary for the conversion?,” I expect to hear. Absent the price pressures of a speculative asset bubble with developer-destroyers prowling neighborhoods looking to “improve” every vacant property into luxury condos, this building could easily and much more beneficially have been turned into space for some of the dozens of non-profits that have vanished from the Mission precisely because of…the speculative asset bubble.
So, can all your nonprofits please go rehab the El Rey Theatre? It’s on the K line. Seems like a great candidate. It was purchased out of foreclosure at what seems like a pretty cheap price of $1 million, which barely gets you a condo these days. I think they were going to build condos, but that was 4 years ago and nothing has happened. Be sure to keep all the historic detail as required by its landmarking though. Maybe if the nonprofits commit to lease, they can get the funding required to redevelop it?
Also, absent a speculative asset bubble that turned most of their former workspaces into condolofts for unicorn
foundersflounderers, the church could have been repurposed as art studios – and in the 1980s, it likely would have been.I don’t know if any of the defenestrated Mission-serving non-profits stayed around (maybe they rented an AirBnB?) waiting for an opportunity to serve the Mission from out in Ingleside, but wait right there – I’ll go check.
Yes, the last time we were discussing the project at the former El Rey Theatre, the project team had proposed building 42 condos on the theater’s parking lot parcels and on top of its two commercial wings along with a basement garage.
But that was pre-pandmic. Maybe they think they can’t get the project “to pencil” now. If they sell, I’m sure they’ll get more than $1 million for the property and their pretty set of plans drawn up by Goldman Architects. Maybe that was the point all along and they never planned to preserve the theater.
I wonder what the most desirable ceiling height is for a living room / great room. Anyone have a guess or even have some real industry standards? I imagine it’s somewhere in the 15-20 foot range. 30 foot ceilings are too much.
Needs a basketball hoop.
I think spaces this big need to be filled with big things, otherwise the variations in scale between average and supersized are visually awkward; wasted vertical space really. All I can think of is the foyer at Castle Howard: colossal architectural details, a few murals, fine stone, etc. Also massive and visually effective: colossal vertically flowing free-form chandeliers, for example.
It would suit the “San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Gentrification”…
Yeah I know someone paid 6.1 million for it, but to me the lack of natural light and any outdoor space are real drawbacks. Even with the giant room and ceiling height it feels too enclosed.
Luxury condo prices are down an average 30+% since the last tech-mania days of 2015-2017, in line wirth the price drop of this unit. As with every asset class (specially high-priced ones) timing is everything, bad timing decision for the seller, and great one for the buyer. Simple as that!